Double play

Two new books on the beautiful game take different approaches to their subject

BASEBALL

BY JEREMY KLASZUS

Baseball Life Advice:

Loving the Game That Saved Me

Stacey May Fowles

McClelland & Stewart

Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters

Mark Kingwell

Biblioasis

WHEN ROGER ANGELL started writing baseball essays for The New Yorker in the 1960s, he knew he’d need a fresh angle on the beloved game. He found it right where he was sitting: in the stands. Instead of analyzing trades and plays like all the other sportswriters, he wrote from the vantage point of a spectator, became the game’s best writer, and, in 2014, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. When writing about sports, it can pay to remain, first and foremost, a fan.